Dr. Carlos Abril - 2023 Featured Presenter
Dr. Janet Revell Barrett - 2023 Featured Presenter
Dr. Cedric Dent - 2023 Featured Presenter
Dr. Lauren Kapalka Richerme - 2023 Featured Presenter
Carlos R. Abril is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, where he teaches courses in philosophy, qualitative methods, and general music education. His research aims to identify barriers to studying music in schools, as well as to illuminate ways to make the study of music more accessible and relevant to children. He has published his work in numerous research and professional journals, as well as in books. He co-edited the books General Music: Dimensions of Practice, Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints, and Musical Experiences in Our Lives. Abril is the immediate past chair of the Society for Research in Music Education and has served on the Research Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a recipient of the Phillip Frost Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship and a Provost Research Award.
Janet Revell Barrett is Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman Endowed Chair Emerita at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she has taught courses in philosophy, curriculum, research methods, music teacher education, and interdisciplinary approaches to music education. Her recent publications include the revised edition of Constructing a Personal Orientation to Music Teaching: Growth, Inquiry, Agency with Mark Robin Campbell and Linda Thompson (Routledge, 2021) and Seeking Connections: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Music Teaching and Learning (Oxford University Press, 2023). She began her career teaching general and choral music in Iowa and Wisconsin, followed by faculty positions in music teacher education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Northwestern University prior to her appointment at Illinois. Barrett is the editor of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education.
Cedric Dent is a member emeritus of the 10-time GRAMMY Award-winning vocal group, TAKE 6. Also a two-time Grammy-nominated music arranger, his traditional choral works and vocal jazz ensemble arrangements are published by Walton Music and Anchor Music Publications respectively. Since 2004, Dent has been a professor in the School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University where he directs the MTSU Singers (a vocal jazz ensemble), teaches history of black gospel music, music theory, and coordinates the School of Music’s internship program. Dent is also an artist/arranger-in-residence with the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, which recorded his setting of the spiritual “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” in 2021. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Alabama, and the University of Maryland. In 2016, he was selected to receive the Hall of Fame Award from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Lauren Kapalka Richerme is Associate Professor of Music Education at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on philosophy, sociology, and cultural diversity as well as mentors graduate students’ research. Lauren’s publications include the philosophy book Complicating, Considering, and Connecting Music Education, the co-authored book Music Education Research: An Introduction, 22 peer reviewed articles, and four invited book chapters. At present, she is finishing a second philosophy book entitled Popular Music Will Not Save Us: Capitalism and Music Education. Lauren currently serves as co-chair of the ISME Commission on Policy, and in June 2023 she will begin serving as the editor of Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education. Prior to her university teaching, Lauren taught high school and middle school band and general music in Massachusetts. She holds degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harvard University, and Arizona State University.